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– Penn State board member Keith Eckel says he doesn’t believe Gov. Tom Corbett, also a board member, could have done anything to let fellow board members know about the grand jury child-sex abuse investigation into former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
“Absolutely not,” Mr. Eckel said in a recent interview. “I’m totally OK with that.”
Mr. Eckel, the former Pennsylvania Farm Bureau chief who was chairman of Mr. Corbett’s agriculture transition team, said the governor took a lot of heat about his proposed budget cuts for Penn State earlier this year all the while knowing about the investigation.
“I can’t imagine how difficult it had to be for Gov. Corbett to have this knowledge and to go through the criticism that he did through the budgetary process,” Mr.Eckel said.
“That had to be very difficult for him … He knew this (about Mr. Sandusky), he was being criticized … He had a responsibility, as the former attorney general, not to undercut the grand jury’s work or his successor’s work.”
Mr. Corbett gained a seat on the university board of trustees when he became governor in January and with that gained a responsibility to the school beyond the governor’s office. He and his spokesman argue he could not say anything because of the secrecy rules surrounding investigating grand juries.
– Former state Rep. Sam Rohrer got clobbered in the Republican primary for governor last year by Attorney General Tom Corbett, who later won the job, but Mr. Rohrer is looking a whole lot better for the new job he’s seeking.
He announced Monday that he will seek the party nomination for the United States Senate seat occupied at the moment by Democratic Sen. Bob Casey.
Public Policy Polling, a Democratic leaning polling firm, found Mr. Rohrer on top of the huge pack of Republican candidates.
He led the field with the backing of 25 percent of 400 Republican voters surveyed by the firm between Thursday and Sunday. Next was Tim Burns, 15 percent, Tom Smith, 3 percent, Laureen Cummings of Old Forge, 2 percent, 1 percent each for John Vernon and Steve Welch, and 0 percent for Marc Scaringi.
PPP says Mr. Rohrer’s lead is mostly because he’s better known than the others, though his name ID isn’t that great. Only 25 percent had formed an opinion of him.
More than half of Republican voters (51 percent) said they are undecided or plan to vote for someone else.
“This is very much a contest in its embryonic stage,” PPP wrote in a memo.
The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.9 percentage points.
– PPP also polled the state in the Republican presidential race, and found quite a surprise: former House Speaker Newt Gingrich dominating.
Mr. Gingrich had 32 percent support, Herman Cain, 15 percent, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, 12 percent, Ron Paul, 9 percent, Michele Bachmann, 5 percent, Rick Perry and Jon Huntsman, 3 percent, and Gary Johnson, 0 percent.
In Pennsylvania, Mr. Gingrich was the second choice of 49 percent of Mr. Cain’s voters to 10 percent for Mr. Romney.
– BORYS KRAWCZENIUK

Stay up to date on Northeastern Pennsylvania politics with Times-Tribune politics reporter Borys Krawczeniuk (pronounced CROUCH-enyook, that's why we just call him "Borys"). The Borys Blog brings you the news, substantiated gossip, insight and intrigue of the region's unique brand of politics.